We haunt every medium we make.

July 10, 2016

This week we're seeing some new fear crop up around the intersection of gaming, augmented reality, and mobile devices. There's a new Pokemon game, Pokemon GO, which lets you collect 'em all in a digital real superimposed on the physical.

[P]olice believe the suspects used the phone app, which directs users to capture imaginary creatures superimposed onto the real world, to tempt players into secluded areas where they could be easily robbed. At a certain level in the game, he noted, players can congregate at local landmarks to join teams and battle.

“Using the geolocation feature,” Stringer said, “the robbers were able to anticipate the location and level of seclusion of unwitting victims.”

In a separate statement, a department spokesperson added: “you can add a beacon to a pokestop to lure more players. Apparently they were using the app to locate [people] standing around in the middle of a parking lot or whatever other location they were in.”

April 24, 2012

iOS users can now download apps devoted to their favorite tyrants, thanks to the work of some pro-authoritarian developers and the approval of Apple's gated apps store. iMussolini, iStalin, and Hitler (formerly iHitler)

“iHitler,” an encyclopedic offering, didn’t make it through Apple’s vaunted approval process (it’s now called, simply, “Hitler”); but apps named “iStalin” and “iMussolini” did.

I could listen to over 100 speeches from il Duce. Since I don’t know Italian, I opted for the “songs of Fascism” section, where I read the lyrics to the hymn “Battaglioni M” in English accompanied by an Italian recording: “Duce’s battalions/ Death’s created for life battalions/ … Without hatred there’s no love around.” “Adolf Hitler ST,” an encyclopedia of Hitler’s life, presented me with categories that included Architecture, The Occult, Hitler’s Women, and Dead [sic]. The Holocaust was not listed. The app was available in English and German, at a cost of 99 cents. It was filed under Education.

April 07, 2012

Imagine how helpful this could be for reporting crimes. If you witnessed a boy being attacked in your yard, or a hit and run, or a robbery, you could immediately upload that file to police databases. Inevitably, we would all become watchmen, critical parts of the surveillance society. Alternately, law enforcement could use cell location tracking to figure out who was in a certain area at a certain time and get a warrant (or subpoena) for access to their vision logs.

Interesting how the author finds good surveillance alongside the bad. As she concludes, "It’s creepy. It’s awesome."

Meanwhile, Gawker: "the 'Google Goggles' unveiled today take creepy tech to the next level." That text focuses on intrusiveness and data collection.

At a third level, this video pokes fun at the possibility for too much/too intrusive advertising.

It's early days, so there hasn't been much time for other media fears to kick in. Google Glasses depraves children, is being used by eQaeda, enables horrific copyright violation, ruins relationships, wounds, kills: expect 'em all.

March 27, 2012

It was bound to happen. We've been creating digital afterlives for years, so naturally someone figured out how to screw it up. T-Mobile deleted a grieving family's last voicemail from their deceased child.

"When I had bad days I would listen to her," the dad tells KOMO 4 News in Seattle. "She said 'Daddy I love you and I miss you.' And I don't have that no more."

December 15, 2011

CUPERTINO, CA—According to its description on the Apple App Store website, Decomposhop, a new application that allows users to track the putrefaction of their deceased loved ones in real time, will be available for download by grieving iPhone owners starting Tuesday. "Decomposhop lets you import open casket photos, enter a date of death, and then watch over time as the face of a friend or family member slowly shrivels up beyond recognition," read a description of the product, which applies a decay algorithm to replicate the deterioration of human remains from bloat to liquefaction to dry rot.

October 17, 2011

Stalking in public: one man follows and photographs a woman, sharing results on Tumblr. It's an odd story, which ultimately risks collapsing into itself.

Because the players back away from fears and anxieties. It becomes a kind of in-group social game, of the pre-interent kind.

what's most striking about this incident is the way in which it differs from the horror stories we're used to hearing about the Web. This wasn't some stranger cyber-stalking an unsuspecting victim; this took place among a group of people who socialized IRL as well as on the Internet. Merker knew Walker, and their mutual social connection was the one that eventually spilled the beans.

Will Tumblr's reputation grow into being known for this kind of social gameplaying? Or will the creepiness swamp it?